It\u2019s hard to imagine that a high school baseball team would feel as though it had something to prove after posting a 17-4 record.<\/p>\n
But that was exactly the position the Kentwood High baseball team found itself in at the beginning of this spring. When the Conquerors looked back, they didn\u2019t see the wins from the previous season or their second-place finish in league, but instead the one glaring loss \u2014 a 13-7 defeat to Newport \u2014 in the first round of the Class 4A state playoffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe definitely could have gone further last year,\u201d seventh-year coach Jon Aarstad said. \u201cWe kind of beat ourselves that game. When I did the math, we gave up 12 unearned runs and scored seven. If we play defense, we go a lot further.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aarstad and the Conquerors used that loss as motivation to this season.<\/p>\n
It worked, too. In fact, that loss to Newport helped catapult the Conquerors from very good to elite as they captured the program\u2019s first South Puget Sound League North Division title and Class 4A state championship since 2000, knocking off Richland 8-0 at Safeco Field late last month to cap off what was a nearly flawless campaign. And the Aarstad-led Conquerors did it despite graduating their ace (Alexander Lee) and losing No. 2 starting pitcher Kent Hagen to a broken leg. Today, Aarstad can add one more accomplishment to the list as he has been named the Kent Reporter\u2019s Coach of the Year.<\/p>\n
Not only did Aarstad guide the Conquerors to the state championship, but he also helped this year\u2019s Kentwood High baseball team reach the school record books as it won a school-best 21 games.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no question that we knew we had the talent to do it at the start of the season, but you have to have the right coach to get there,\u201d said pitcher Avery Kain, who threw a 2-hit shutout in the championship game. \u201cHe blended in well. We had a lot of personalities on the team, and he did a good job of bringing us all together. He knew when to be laid back, but also when to be fiery.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aarstad also knew when to alter his coaching style. While pitching was one of the calling cards of this year\u2019s Kentwood team, so too was its high-powered offense, a group that averaged nine runs per game and outscored its opponents this season 216-89. That offense, however, was slowed in the Class 4A state semifinals against Federal Way. Instead of using their bats to overpower the scrappy Eagles, Aarstad\u2019s Conquerors employed small-ball tactics to scratch out a 3-2 win as cleanup hitter Austin Voth bunted a runner over twice during the pivotal victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe just really understands the game well,\u201d said Voth, who was named the SPSL North\u2019s MVP this spring.<\/p>\n
Which is evident in Aarstad\u2019s track record. In seven years at the helm of the program, Aarstad has posted a 115-53 overall record, a run that now includes six state tournament appearances. During that span, the Conquerors have finished second, third and now first at state.<\/p>\n
As good as Kentwood\u2019s offense was, however, its pitching may have been even better. Kentwood\u2019s pitching staff allowed two or fewer runs in 11 of its 24 games.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think if you put us on paper compared to last year, 1 through 18, we were much deeper. We had a bench that was very good, and our pitching, we went 1 through 6, 1 through 7 deep,\u201d said Aarstad, who pitched at both Big Bend Community College and at Central Washington University in the 1990s. \u201cI think, in general, our depth was just better this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet, when it comes to what he\u2019ll remember most, Aarstad doesn\u2019t point to the state championship or a specific moment in the season. Instead, the coach points to how the Conquerors responded to a three-game slide late during the regular season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I will remember most about this team is how they learned to fail, and learned how to overcome that,\u201d he said. \u201cI think we bounced back really well. We lost 3 out of 4 and this team said, \u2018OK, I don\u2019t like that. I don\u2019t like losing, I don\u2019t want to lose and I want to get better.\u2019 We really did get better. It was fun to see them learn that part of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s hard to imagine that a high school baseball team would feel as though it had something to prove after posting a 17-4 record.
\nBut that was exactly the position the Kentwood High baseball team found itself in at the beginning of this spring. When the Conquerors looked back, they didn\u2019t see the wins from the previous season or their second-place finish in league, but instead the one glaring loss \u2014 a 13-7 defeat to Newport \u2014 in the first round of the Class 4A state playoffs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":1711,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-1710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1710"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1710"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=1710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}